Government gives another $100k for flood relief

The Government has pledged another $100,000 to help Southland as the region cleans up from this week's extreme flooding event.

Minister of Civil Defence Peeni Henare announced the funding towards the Southland regional Mayoral Relief Fund this afternoon during a visit to the region, which included a tour of flood-hit Mataura.

It comes after Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor's earlier this week announced $100,000 of funding for the Rural Support Trusts to help speed up the recovery of farming businesses, including pastoral support and specialist technical advice.

In a press conference at Invercargill airport , Mr Henare said he was proud of the response to the emergency, which he called "exceptional".

He flew over the region and noted "the water has gone down a lot", but said it was too early to fully understand the level of damage and repair costs.

He said it was always possible to learn from extreme weather events and there needed to be some long term thinking to ensure towns like Mataura and Wyndham were "better prepared".

The money announced today would help.

“Mayoral Relief Funds provide an additional way to help communities get back on their feet after an emergency.

"Local communities and councils are best-placed to know exactly what they need so this funding can be used, for example, to meet the needs of affected families and individuals, community organisations or marae.”

Mr Henare would be briefing  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday about his visit and said the Government would be having ongoing conversations with Southland's mayoral offices to make sure the region would have all the support it needed.

He would also be briefing Ms Ardern over concerns about the ouvea premix stored at the old Mataura paper mill after fears, which turned out to be unfounded, it could have released poisonous ammonia gas if hit by floodwaters.

He said addressing that risk would be a "high priority" for the Government.

"I think it's far to say, we dodged a bullet in the past few days, but it's important in a long-term solution need to be found."

Ahead of his Invercargill visit, Mr Henare was helicoptered into Mataura to visit the community centre.

There he met with those helping affected residents of the flooding.

While it was a very quick visit, he was shown around the centre by Emergency Management Southland team leader response Craig Sinclair and given an update on how residents were being aided.

After that, the entourage of  representatives present headed to the river to see the somewhat lessened flow of water before heading to Invercargill.